The
Roberts Space Industries website has a new letter from the chairman, as
Chris Roberts reacts to Star Citizen's crowd-funding campaign surpassing
the $34 million plateau and unlocking the thrills of the MISC Hull C (Discreet).
Their $35 million
stretch goal is a small, armored data-smuggling ship called The Drake
Herald, and the new update also unveils their $36 million goal, the Tamsa
System, a risky place to play, as it includes two planets orbiting a black hole.

NegaDeath wrote on Dec 9, 2013, 13:32:So from all the discussion regarding black hole physics I think we've come to the conclusion that if we fly into the Black Hole we'll be transported somewhere mysterious. I'll let you know how it works out.

While a deeply creepy voice keeps repeating "In in in! Through through through! And beyond! In in in! Through through through! And beyond!"

Pumas wrote on Dec 8, 2013, 17:24:I think Creston has the right line of thought here because the blurb specifically says that at least one of the planets lie on the event horizon of the black hole (the chthonian world). At that point, you would not even be able to see the planet from outside the event horizon, assuming that it wasn't already being disintegrated, because light is being pulled inwards.

Not only that, but it would be an entirely sterile, dead rock because of the gargantuan levels of radiation.

But enough science, as long it looks pretty it's cool.

Yeah, that was my thought. Any planet orbiting a black hole would need one hell of a Van Allen belt to be habitable.

Also, wouldn't it be eternal nighttime? Black holes are, uh, black.

The nice thing about black holes is that they can suck suns in ;p So you are never going to run out of ambient light... gases from suns tend to glow nicely in radiation too.

NegaDeath wrote on Dec 9, 2013, 13:32:So from all the discussion regarding black hole physics I think we've come to the conclusion that if we fly into the Black Hole we'll be transported somewhere mysterious. I'll let you know how it works out.

While a deeply creepy voice keeps repeating "In in in! Through through through! And beyond! In in in! Through through through! And beyond!"

So from all the discussion regarding black hole physics I think we've come to the conclusion that if we fly into the Black Hole we'll be transported somewhere mysterious. I'll let you know how it works out.

verybad1 wrote on Dec 8, 2013, 15:37:It's not a physics impossibility at all. A black hole has to be @10 times the mass of our sun in order to form. So long as the planet(s) are orbiting at a distance far enough from the black hole that they wouldn't be torn apart by a regular sun that size, then they could survive orbiting the black hole.

For a cosmological instant, yes. The entire point of a black hole is that it doesn't allow for stable orbits. Everything eventually gets sucked in.

Admittedly, the blurb doesn't say that the planets have a stable orbit, so perhaps they are on a course to being sucked in.

That and the speed at which objects orbit black holes is insanely fast.

Edit:I'm assuming that the playable area would need to be fairly close to the black hole considering it's a video game and realistic dimensions required for actual planets and black holes would be impossible with current technology. Being that close to an actual black hole would be disastrou for players, planets and even stars. Anything that gets anywhere near a black hole is going bye-bye. The distance that a planet would need to be in order to survive would be extremely far.

It seems to me that planets orbiting a black hole seems more likely than circumbinary planets. I would have thought the constant gravitational fluctuations would prevented stable orbits, yet such planets are apparently relatively abundant. Probably not habitable, though. Two stars orbiting in close proximity probably throw off tons of material and radiation.

1badmf wrote on Dec 9, 2013, 01:21:eh? did you read the same link i did? all the rational responses i read said the same thing - that at large distances a black hole behaves the same as any other gravity well where newtonian physics are sufficient to predict orbital paths.

I'm getting kinda bored with this entire topic, but I'll just do a few quick quotes from said linked article.

- This demonstrates the types of stable orbits you can obtain, but real life will have a more complicated collection of parameters. Most black holes are rotating, and they apparently rotate at a large fraction of their theoretical maximum. Plus, there's other material around it. But both of these open up avenues to get energy from it. These complications will likely prevent "stable" orbits, but since they're non-conservative, you can sort-of "surf" the environment around the black hole until you deplete all its usable energy (hint: that's a lot).

- Yes, there are, to a reasonable approximation ... In the case of a spinning black hole, things become more complicated as a spiraling object may actually reverse the direction of rotation due to frame dragging.

- At low distances, there really isn't.

So, alright, I'll concede the point about the large distances, though I get the idea we're talking distances far greater than a few AUs, but within solar system distances, which is what the game is talking about, the orbits aren't going to be stable (stable as in: Not degenerating within cosmological timescales.)

You're aware that your 'good starting point' has just about as many people saying that there is no stable orbit around a black hole, right?

eh? did you read the same link i did? all the rational responses i read said the same thing - that at large distances a black hole behaves the same as any other gravity well where newtonian physics are sufficient to predict orbital paths.

i've been a long time lay-admirer of astrophysics, and i must say that i've never ever heard any expert say a black hole has no stable orbits. they may have escape velocity > C, but that only deals with escaping close proximity. you can certainly enter orbit (or maintain one); after all, below relativistic effects, gravity is gravity for all things.

Your telling me, between each 3-5 million increase they get in funds, they are adding all these new features that some could take months and months to develop. Yet as the money keeps rolling in, so do these apparent features additional content? Let's see, how many employees work at the company? What are their average salaries? I'm sure they got enough money to fund an entire company at this point to start a whole new venture outside of gaming, lol.

Pumas wrote on Dec 8, 2013, 17:24:I think Creston has the right line of thought here because the blurb specifically says that at least one of the planets lie on the event horizon of the black hole (the chthonian world). At that point, you would not even be able to see the planet from outside the event horizon, assuming that it wasn't already being disintegrated, because light is being pulled inwards.

Not only that, but it would be an entirely sterile, dead rock because of the gargantuan levels of radiation.

But enough science, as long it looks pretty it's cool.

Yeah, that was my thought. Any planet orbiting a black hole would need one hell of a Van Allen belt to be habitable.

Actually no you can have a stable orbit around a black hole quite easily. There's no difference between their gravity and that of a regular star,

Were our sun to become a black hole (at it's current mass it won't, but using it as a discussion point), the earth and other planets around it would continue to orbit for billions of years just as they are now.

Active black holes (i.e. ones emitting a lot of gamma rays) have an accretion disk where matter gets close enough be heated up and releases gamma rays and other light (heat etc.). The loss of energy allows that matter to fall closer to the black hole however that matter would NOT fall closer to the black hole unless it is in the accretion disk and the friction allows it to.

If you were to get close enough to the black hole that you're in the accretion disk, then you're dead in any case.

Additionally, a lot of matter is not absorbed by the black hole, but is instead speeded up and spit out at close to light speeds (ridiculous radiation).

Orbit physics around a black hole is absolutely the same as around a star unless you enter the accretion disk. (which us similar to about the same as entering a star in terms of heat.